Siemens Opens U.S. Wind Power Distribution Center in Wichita, Kansas

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As Siemens Energy's wind power business continues its focus on regionalization and providing increased efficiency to its customers, the company today announced it has opened a new wind power distribution facility in Wichita, Kansas. The 73,000-square-foot warehouse, with seven acres of outside storage, will provide procurement, kitting, storage, refurbishment and distribution for the tooling needed to erect and install wind turbines throughout the Americas region. The center will also provide storage, repair and distribution for all new unit transport framing and hardware used to move towers, nacelles and blades throughout the region. The scope of the facility and the number of employees, currently at 12, is expected to grow as the company's local sourcing initiatives expand.

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"With more and more wind projects coming on line in the U.S., we see this new facility in Wichita as a testament to our continued commitment to providing the highest level of service to our customers and to the overall maturation of the U.S. wind industry," said Mark Albenze, CEO of Siemens Energy's Wind Power Americas business. "Much like Siemens' recently announced new wind service facility in Woodward, Oklahoma, the geographic location of the new Wichita distribution center will allow us to address our customers' installation and distribution needs in a cost-effective and timely manner."

The Wichita facility will provide support and distribution services for wind projects throughout the U.S., and locally in Kansas, where Siemens is providing Duke Energy with 73 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines for its Ironwood wind project in Spearville, scheduled to be commissioned late next summer. With an installed capacity of 168 megawatts (MW), the Ironwood wind project is expected to provide clean power to more than 50,000 households in Kansas. Also in Kansas, Siemens is supplying 57 SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for Duke Energy's Cimarron II wind project in Gray County, Kansas, scheduled for commissioning in May 2012.

Siemens continues to grow its wind energy presence in the U.S. and now enjoys a number two position in the market in terms of installed capacity. The Wichita center marks the 11th facility related to Siemens' wind power business in the U.S. Others include the company's recently opened nacelle assembly plant in nearby Hutchinson, Kansas; a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa; a service and distribution facility in Woodward, Oklahoma, opening in December; service centers in Goldendale, Washington, and Houston, Texas; an R&D center in Boulder, Colorado; two gearbox factories in Elgin, Illinois; an offshore office in Boston, Massachusetts; and the company's Americas headquarters in Orlando, Florida. In the U.S., Siemens has installed wind turbines with a combined capacity of more than 4,600 MW in the U.S., which is enough to supply power to more than 1.4 million homes.

Wind power is part of Siemens' Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2010, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about EUR28 billion, making Siemens the world's largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 270 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of the megacities Hong Kong, London, New York, Tokyo, Delhi and Singapore.

The Siemens Energy Sector is the world's leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for power generation in thermal power plants and using renewables, power transmission in grids and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2010 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of approximately EUR25.5 billion and received new orders totaling more than EUR30.1 billion and posted a profit of more than EUR3.3 billion. On September 30, 2010, the Energy Sector had a work force of more than 88,000. Further information is available at: www.siemens.com/energy.

SOURCE Siemens Energy